Imagine you are Mr. Bill Gates, czar of the wealth. Life is great; you're the richest man on the earth. You can buy anything in life, right? Wrong. Before you ride on the jet of euphoria and focus your entire life on earning money, know there are simply things that a roll of hundred dollar bills cannot get for you, not even if you are Mr. Gates.

    If you are perplexed, let me explain my theory. It may sound like an oxymoron but money has its Achilles’ heel. All of our false perceptions about money have one common flaw - they identify money as something external to us, they identify money as the tool to accumulate abundance to please others by accumulating possessions.

    What money can't buy mostly lies within us. Nonetheless, trading our life energy for money can deprive us from inner nourishment that can eventually lead our lives into a downward spiral.

    1. Time: Money is a tool for trade. With that said, we spend a good chunk of our allotted time on this earth getting, spending, worrying and fantasizing about money. You can't buy the time and save it in your storeroom even if you are Mr. Gates. On the contrary, money takes away your time that could have been spent playing with your children or having a long walk with your alter ego. When the sun sets, a day goes away from our life forever. No money has power to bring that back to life.

    2. Self Awareness: Ignorance is bliss, right? It's a curse. Not having self-awareness and self-consciousness lead to decisions that can cost you dearly. Well, the cost may be life itself. As a result, many people live a mediocre life without living for a true purpose. Their ignorance can't be transmuted into awareness with money. They believe that their ignorance is their awareness.

    3. Self esteem: I have a plethora of examples to prove that no money can purchase self-esteem. Self-esteem is earned from within. If you are your worst enemy, gods of money can't rescue you from the self-destruction you inflict on yourself. King of rock Elvis Presley had the best life one can imagine with no dearth of cash. He took his own life with the deprivation of self-esteem.

    4. Health: As I write this, I found out that Senator Kennedy has brain cancer, and it is terminal. Of course money can get him the best health care possible but no money can buy insurance for a life. We buy insurance for just about everything including our life but money can never bring life back.

    5. Respect: Try this. Slap someone on his face and then hand him $100 to get his respect. Will you get it? I doubt it. We all live our life in pursuit of self-respect from peers, from family members, from our alter ego and even from strangers. No money can buy respect from others if our actions speak volumes about our negativity - insult, rudeness and lack of respect for others.

    6. Happiness: This is controversial. Money can buy happiness if it is spent on to bring grater financial security for the family. However, money can't buy happiness if the purpose is to make money to make other people happy. The chase of possession of possessions can never find its destination with incessant desire to accumulate more possessions. Happiness comes from within. When we trade so much time and energy to get money, we deprive our inner self from the food of happiness.

    I'm sure that you either are nodding you head in disbelief by now, or you've been enlightened by the revelation that, after all, money can't buy some of what matters most in our life. I'll be glad to get a zap or a hug from you.

    設想你是比爾蓋茨，世界首富。生活真是太棒了，你是世界上最富有的人。你可以買到人生中的一切，對嗎？錯。在你快樂的要飛上天之前，在你將全部精力放在掙錢上之前，你要知道有些簡單的東西不是大把的鈔票能給你的，即使你是蓋茨。

    如果我的理論讓你疑惑了，我來解釋一下。聽起來有點矛盾，但錢有它自己的阿基里斯定律。我們所有關于錢的錯誤理解都有一個共通點－－錢被定義為外在的東西，代表累積財富的工具而累積的財產可以讓人高興。

    錢買不到的東西是在我們內心的。雖然如此，將生活的精力放在賺錢上會失去內在的養分，最后導致生活質量逐漸下降。

    1. 時間。錢是交易工具。也就是說，我們在有限的時間內花大部分時間在賺錢，花錢，擔心沒錢，幻想有錢。你不能買下時間存在儲藏室里，就算你是蓋茨也不行。相反，為了賺錢，你就沒時間賠孩子玩或和摯友散步。太陽下山，這一天就從我們生命中永遠消失了。錢沒有力量追回來。

    2. 自知。無知是福，對嗎？此乃禍根。不自知且不自覺導致你付出昂貴的代價。嗯，代價也許就是生活本身。結果很多人一生碌碌無為，沒有真正的目標。錢不能將他們的無知變為有知。他們認為他們無知是由于他們有知。

    3. 自尊。我有一大堆例子證明錢不能買自尊。自尊是通過內在贏得的。如果你是自己最大的敵人，錢神不能將你從你自己附加的自我毀滅中解救出來。巖石王艾維斯普雷斯利有你能想象的最好的生活，擁有花不完的錢。他用失去自尊來獲得了自己的生活。

    4. 健康。我在寫這一條的時候發現肯尼迪議員得了腦癌最后結束了生命。當然錢可以給他最好的醫療看護但不能保證活命。我們買所有的保險包括人生保險，但錢不能起死回生。

    5. 尊敬。試試看，打別人一巴掌再給他100塊讓他尊敬你。你能得到尊敬嗎？我懷疑。我們一生追求同人的尊敬，家人的尊敬，摯友的尊敬，甚至陌生人的尊敬。 如果我們的行為大聲說出我們的消極面－－傲慢，粗俗，對別人不尊重，錢是買不到他人的尊敬的。

    6. 幸福。這有爭議。錢如果花在給家庭帶來更大的財政保障，是可以買到幸福的。但是，如果用錢來讓人快樂，錢就不能買到幸福。渴望不斷累積更多的財富而追求財富永遠沒有盡頭。幸福是源于內心的。我們花這么多時間和精力去賺錢，就失去了內在幸福的來源。

    我肯定你現在還會懷疑的點點頭，或者你已得到啟發，畢竟錢不能買到對生活很重要的一些東西。你贊成或反對我都樂于接受。